Bon Voyage Weekend

The American Rhodes Scholars, accompanied by three scholars from Bermuda, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, met in Washington D.C. for five days before flying to London. As Michael and Becky dropped me off at the Dupont Hotel, I think it hit me for the very first time that I was actually leaving the country, my friends, and my family. But I couldn't dwell on this; before long I was meeting the scholars and attempting to memorize names and fields of study.

The Bon Voyage (Sailing) Weekend is funded entirely by Rhodes Alum (the AARS), and was originally created in the mid eighties to replace the bonding experience the Rhodes Scholars previously enjoyed on the boat ride over to England, which occurred from 1904 to the early 1980's. Its goal was to introduce the new scholars to Oxford, meet some previous scholars already engaged in the "world's fight," and begin friendships before joining individual colleges in Oxford. Noticing that despite the event's title, the group was not "sailing" and the activities had not occurred primarily on a "weekend," the Association President, noted that this provided a perfect introduction to Oxford.

During the five days, we dined multiple times with former scholars, entertained by the formal atmosphere and the old stories of Oxford. We engaged in discussions with former scholars about the school, college, activities, and all other odd aspects of Oxford. We toured the Shakespear Theatre, saw a working rehearsal of "The Alchemis" by Ben Jonson, toured the NIH and World Bank, had a reception at the British Deputy Head of Mission Dominick Chilcott, had a Congressional Breakfast, toured the Capitol, Jefferson Building, and Library of Congress, and had a final Lunch at the Cosmos Club. On top of all that, we took a couple evenings to explore the bars around Dupont Circle, and get to know each other in a situation where we weren't trying to balance an appatizer and wine glass while carry elegant conversations with total strangers. Overall, it was a lot of fun. There was a small detail in there where I became rather sick for about 36 hours, and came within about 5 seconds of puking on the British Deputy. Other than that it was great.

What pleased me most over the 5 days were the people I was surrounded by. The other Rhodes Scholars are pretty incredible, yet still down to earth and quick to downplay their own accomplishments. It's a diverse bunch, and no matter what the topic of our discussions, it seemed like there was always an expert in the field to turn to for an opinion.

What surprised me most was that the same message was put forth by nearly every alum: don't concentrate too much on academics. They repeatedly told us that we had already put in the hard work and proved ourselves; now it was time to enjoy a different country and culture for a few years.